Booting up kills network

[gvmorris]

First off, I have a Linksys router connected to a cable modem which fine
with my Windows XP and 98 machines. The problem is when I boot the Linux PC (Dual P3 600, Intel board, 768 meg ram and 3 com net card) it kills the whole network. I have to unplug the Linksys and plug it back in to get the network back. Dont have to touch the cable modem.
If I unplug the network cable to the linux box before I power it up, turn on the pc, then plug the cable back in, everything continues to function normally with no problems.
Has anyone seen this or have any ideas what could be going on. I am fairly new to Linux so Im not sure what to check except ip's etc..
The linux box has a static IP that is not conflicting with anything else on the network or router.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Gary Morris

[stumbles]

Originally posted by gvmorris

If I unplug the network cable to the linux box before I power it up, turn on the pc, then plug the cable back in, everything continues to function normally with no problems.
Gary Morris

Try replacing that network cable on the linux box.

[chort]

It sound's like a MAC address conflict for one reason or another. Perhaps the Linux box is trying to proxy ARP or something. It does sound very odd.

Use arp -a on your Windows boxes before and after booting the Linux box (with the network cable plugged in) and see if it changes. Make sure to ping the internal IP of your router just prior to running arp -a, so you're sure to have the MAC addr cached.

[cowanrl]

I have a few questions for you.

Is that a Linksys router/switch combination? Are your XP and 98 workstations plugged in to it or do you have a separate hub/switch that everything plugs in to which is then uplinked to the router?

When you say it kills the entire network, are you talking about just the connection to the Internet? Can the Windows machines still ping each other or is all network communications disrupted?

When you start the Linux machine with the network cable unplugged, when are you plugging it back in? Are you waiting until the Linux machine has finished booting and is at a login prompt? Or, are you plugging the network cable in right after the power is turned on while the machine is still booting up?

The time at which the cable is plugged in could indicate if it is a hardware problem with the NIC or is some sort of a software issue with Linux.

[gvmorris]

Thanks for the quick replies.
Cable is ok.
I fired up the xp machine and made sure the internet was working. OK.
Fired up Linux box and it killed the Internet connection. I shut everything down and reset the linksys router then fired up the xp again. Internet ok. Ran the arp -a on xp and ipconfig on 98 machine and noted mac addresses.
Rebooted the linux box a second time and this time it didnt act up.
Next time it does it I will try to ping the other boxes. I think I checked that already and I was able to ping the router etc... Will make sure.
Note I never touched the cable either time tonight.
Previously, When I unplugged the linux box from the switch I didn't plug it back in until I was ready to log onto rh8.
I also want to check (next time it acts up) to see if I can ping an ip address on the internet in case it is dns related.
Any other ideas you have would be great so I can check the next time it acts up.
Thanks again all.

Gary.